14 February 2025

Valentine Sweets

11 February 2025

Zeroes

Oops, I missed again. Sometime in December I hit 10,000,000 visitors here at Snowcatcher. (According to my stats, I had a million visitors in two months. That has never happened before!!!) I would have loved to have been able to screenshot my momentous milestone. But I guess 11,000,000 will have to do. Looks like that set of zeroes might come a lot sooner than I would have expected.

Maybe. Looks like my blog went back to predictably boring after January 14, the day I experienced a mind-numbing 45,000 hits. What did I publish that day???

Hmmm. Nothing ground-breaking. Nothing to garner that kind of attention.

I did share my years-long avocado-dyed motif project on January 13, but it has only 108 hits so far.

I wonder if I got bombarded with bots or something because even my most popular posts don't reflect the influx of visitors I appear to have attracted for about six straight weeks. Whatever happened, sorry I missed it. Hope I don't miss the next one!

10 February 2025

Heartflake Monday

Our official Make a Snowflake Day snuck up on me last week. I apologize for not coming up with something special to celebrate. I apologize for not even making a snowflake that day. Hopefully, today's Valentine flake will spread some love and kindness, even though I've neglected my crochet snowflake duties.

Here's my inspiration for this week's skipped heartbeat. Click on the photo to be taken to the creator's post. There are several great heartflake papercuts with instructions!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 3.5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Skipped Beat Heartflake Instructions

Ch 36. Taking care not to twist work, sl st into starting ch to form circle.

Round 1: [Ch 2, sk next 2 ch, 1 pc in next ch, ch 2, sk next 2 ch, sl st in next ch] 6 times.

Round 2: Ch 11 (counts as 1 dc and [ch 9), sk over next 2 ch, next pc and next 2 ch, 1 dc around next sl st] 5 times; ch 4, 1 trtr in 2nd ch of starting ch 11 to form 6th ch 9 tip of Round.

If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 3: Ch 15 (counts as 1 dc and [ch 13), 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook and in each of next 2 ch, ch 4, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook and in next ch, 1 dc in top half of next dc, 1 dc in bottom half of same dc, sl st in each of next 2 ch (heart picot made), ch 6, 1 dc in middle (5th) ch of next ch 9 tip] 5 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 13; bind off. Weave in ends.

NOTE: If you're having trouble with the heart picot, see the photo tutorial here. Although today's heart picot is just a bit different than in the tutorial, the technique is the same.

TIP: I use linked dc for my heart picots. I think it dramatically improves them because it eliminates gaps. Moogly has a great linked dc tutorial here.

Finish: I've been stiffening my flakes with undiluted, full-strength water soluble school glue for quite a while now, and I've been squishing the glue onto and throughout each flake with my fingers (yucky mess!!!) instead of gingerly painting the flakes with glue. Yes, it's a mess. But it's faster. And stiffer.

Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

06 February 2025

What Shawl I Do?

I don't have as much time to craft these days, and I'm so far behind, I don't need new patterns. Or new fabric. Or new yarn. So what did I do last December but buy a large crochet octopus pattern that will use up at least 246 of my 2,000+ pony beads? I HAVE to have a crocheted octopus in my garden, right???

I already have more WIPs than I can finish in one lifetime. Why on earth did I buy a new pattern??? Because it was so friggin' adorable!!!

So I HAD to buy (online) some beautiful gradient worsted yarn to make the octopus. Turns out, though, the yarn is not worsted. It’s thinner (and way splittier) than sock yarn. (I actually plan to try making an octopus with thread, but I'll wait until I've finished a few more WIPs.) (Maybe.) I could easily make this pattern work with sock yarn, but this new yarn is just too splitty to work tightly. Yes, I tried. And I truly gave it my best shot. I literally wanted to throw my embryo octopus out the window before starting the second tentacle.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait to use the gorgeous new (splitty) yarn because the colors are so pretty. Yes, you guessed it. I started yet another new project. Because I really like the pattern. Actually, I LOVE the pattern. It's one of my own. And I can crochet loosely, which makes the yarn a little tiny bit easier to use. If I work on the new shawl a bit (almost) every night before bed and don't skip too many nights, it's not really a WIP, right???

04 February 2025

Just Humming...

I recently dreamed I had two hummingbirds in my kitchen. I dreamed I found them because I was up in the middle of the night, which was when they'd try to sip from the kitchen sink, undiscovered. In my dream, I discreetly put out some nectar for them, which they immediately began to consume. I told Lizard I needed to go to the local grocery store to buy some flowers so they could have real food until summer. And then Lizard woke me. In real life. End of extremely pleasant dream.

Just the day before, in real life, I'd told Lizard I needed to go to the local grocery store to buy flowers for my neighbor for her birthday. She and her husband have been such angels in our lives.

I also am frequently up in the middle of the night, thanks to Parkinson's. So that part of the dream wasn't unusual at all. Oh, and that particular night, the sink was indeed full of dishes, which were full of (clean) water, from which hummingbirds would have been able to safely dine.

But where did the hummingbirds come fom??? There are no hummingbirds in Colorado right now! At least not live and flower-sipping!

I think I figured it out. My sister-in-law gifted us the cutest little beaded hummingbird for Christmas. She didn't know we no longer have a Christmas tree. Too much of a tripping hazard. Yet this little guy is so adorable, I have to keep it on display. It's currently hanging from the snowflake stocking hanger on our bookshelf. We keep our snowflake decor out all year. Proudly.

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I decided this dream would be perfect blog fodder. I enlisted AI to generate some hummers-in-the-dirty-dishes images to illustrate this post. I was pretty disappointed with most of the results. Deformed hummingbirds. Hummingbirds spewing water from their mouths over sinks with no faucets. Faucets trickling onto sinkless counters.

As a result, I took my little beaded hummer out for a tour of its new surroundings. Sometimes, real life is better than AI!


Hummer Meets Lavender


Kokopelli Hummer


Dieter and Wolfgang haven't been out of their Altoid box in years!


too cold for me


We can fly!


Oh, look! Lunch!!!


Well, hello...


Are there flowers somewhere underneath all these butterflies?


perfect size


Man, why all the snowflakes in this place?!?


Aaah, real food, at last!

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